Apalachee High School baseball coach Mike Cavey will look at shaking things up for 2011.

The Diamond Wildcat coach will look at not only his lineup on the field but even the way he approaches mentoring the team.

AHS started the 2010 season with plenty of promise, including an upset of county and region rival Winder-Barrow, but the team seemed to fizzle out as the spring progressed.

“I have to do a self evaluation of myself and our philosophy as a staff and make the necessary changes that will allow us to improve and have our players playing at the highest level,” Cavey said. “Whether it be in a total restructure of how we run practices or how we teach individual positions, something is going to have to change to achieve the results we want.”

The 2010 campaign was admitedly tough for Cavey, who felt the team wasn’t playing to its potential or putting in the necessary effort at times.

“I thought our pitching did really well this year,” the coach said. “That was one of the main areas of concern for me, but our staff did a great job and Cory Hoopaugh pitched well even though his record did not indicate it. A few more runs, and things would have been different.”

Coach Mike Cavey will continue building the AHS program this summer and next spring. Photo by Jessica Brown

The defense often did not back up Hoopaugh or others Cavey sent to the mound.

“I was disappointed with our defense that we couldn’t find ways to secure the lead and hold on to it,” the AHS coach said. “We lost many games in the last two innings while having the lead because of our inability to hold the other team. Some of this had to do with defense and not making the routine plays.

Woes also plagued the Diamond Wildcats offensively.

“I thought our hitting let us down this year,” Cavey said. “After such a strong start and scoring a lot of runs, we fell into a slump that we as a team could not break out of. We took way too many pitches and lost our confidence. We struck out way too many times by looking at the third strike and not even taking our bats off of our shoulders. It just felt like the guys were expecting someone else to get it done rather than themselves. That was really disappointing.”

Toward the end of the season, Cavey began playing younger players in an effort to prepare them for 2011 and beyond.

“Overall, we played many young players and I am excited to see how they adjust to it next year,” he said. “ Many of our freshmen got some quality innings at the varsity level and I hope that will make us better for the next few years. We definitely need the young ones to step it up next year and take more of a leadership and ownership role of our program. Hopefully our young guys will stay hungry and work even harder next year.”

The coach is also looking to continue to make improvements at the AHS baseball facility, noting it is important to keep up with what other programs in the area have.

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